Top 10 Football Clubs in the World 2016

Arsenal F.C. is a British professional football club based out of Holloway, London, having a huge global fan following.

Image: Club website

Formed in 1886 by workers, the club was called Dial Square, and thereafter, it was renamed Royal Arsenal and in 1893, it went on to become the first southern club to participate in the Football League. Arsenal finished the 20th century with the highest average league position and has gone on to win 12 FA Cups,13 League titles, 2 League Cups, 14 FA Community Shields, and 1 each of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

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Recently, under the management of Arsène Wenger the club has set some mind-boggling English records like being the only unbeaten team in a 38 match season and for the longest winning streak. David O'Leary holds the record for maximum appearances for Arsenal with 722 first-team matches and Thierry Henry is the club's top goalscorer with 228 goals. Henry also holds the record for maximum goals scored in a League (175). Arsenal also holds the record for maximum hold attendance when it hosted UEFA match at the Wembley Stadium, which was attended by 73,707 people.

American sports tycoon Stan Kroenke is the largest shareholder on the Arsenal board while the club’s parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, is a publicly listed company. According to Forbes magazine Arsenal’s total value is $2.02Bn which positions it at 5th rank among global clubs. In 2014-15 Arsenal earned € 435.5Mn from the Emirates Stadium, creating history for maximum revenue in world football. The club also has the 5th largest social media fan base among all clubs of the world.

Arsenal finished at 2nd position in the 2015-16 season behind Leicester City. The current squad consists of Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez, Petr Čech and Granit Xhaka amongst others.